


Happy Campers

by DaemonMeg



Series: A Hint of Jasmine [7]
Category: My Engineer (TV)
Genre: Camping, Drunken Kissing, F/M, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28444179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaemonMeg/pseuds/DaemonMeg
Summary: Ting Ting shares her tent with Tee on the last night of the camping trip. They're a little tipsy, a little flirty, and a little brave.
Relationships: Tee/Ting Ting (My Engineer)
Series: A Hint of Jasmine [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776655
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this (my) [post](https://accidentallyadramablog.tumblr.com/post/621494324435271680/ive-been-thinking-about-the-friend-groups-from-my) on Tumblr.

Ting Ting went to the tent when the boys started acting immature. Or at least more immature than usual. She turned on the small lantern and set it up on the tent floor so she could see what she was doing while she took out her contacts. After doing that, she picked up her toiletry bag and made the trek to the camp shower house to wash up and brush her teeth before bed. There was nothing worse than waking up with whiskey breath. She learned that after the freshy parties at the beginning of the year.

Last night, she shared her tent with Tang, but he was spending the night with Phu tonight and Tee was in her tent, or was supposed to be. He was still sitting outside by the bonfire by himself when she was coming back from the showerhouse. She finished her bottle of water and shut off the lantern before sliding into her sleeping bag. It was cold on the mountain, and she was glad she’d brought one that was flannel-lined.

The campgrounds were dark, but certainly not quiet. All around, Ting Ting could hear the other students talking and laughing in their dark tents. Someone was even snoring! A few tents had the muffled sounds of feverish lovemaking, but she didn’t bother to look. Everyone seemed to have a partner these days but her, not that she was truly mad about it.

Not long after, she heard scratching noises outside the tent, and a soft thump that sounded like sneakers flopping into the dirt. The door unzipped quietly and Tee stepped in softly. Or at least he tried to. He stepped right on Ting Ting’s ankle, rolling off it and landing hard on his butt on the tent floor.

“Ow! Hey,” she cried out in shock. It startled her more than hurt since he fell off so quickly. Ting Ting began to laugh as she watched Tee lean over and rub his ass where he fell. “Did you hurt your brain?”

“Really funny, Ting. I was trying not to wake you up actually. Sorry,” he said.

“Were you the last one up?”

“Yeah. King and Ram left for their tent an hour ago.”

“Is P’King okay?” she asked. King had been acting weird around Ram all trip and especially ever since she saw them at the waterfall.

Tee looked at her for a long time. It was hard to read his face in the dark, but he seemed to come to some decision.

“I think he needs to talk to Ram,” Tee said finally.

Ting Ting nodded silently in agreement. She thought the same thing, but about Ram. “Boys are stupid,” she said at last with a laugh. “Here, come see the photos that we took today at the falls.”

Tee lay down on his bag and stretched out next to Ting Ting to peer at her phone. She quickly pulled up her gallery and started swiping through to show Tee all the photos she snapped while walking around all afternoon. She hadn’t swam with the others and mostly bounced from group to group visiting with friends and getting to know the engineering students. 

“How long have you known Pete?” Tee asked, pointing to a photo of Ting Ting posing with another first year.

“I met him for the first time today.”

Tee turned to look at Ting Ting with a blank expression on his face lit solely by the light of her phone app, “Phu and I heard him ask you out. That must have made you happy.”

“What?! No.” She felt her face heat.

“Why? You’re always complaining about how everyone else has a boyfriend but you.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s just talk. I like to be dramatic. It doesn’t mean I’ll just say yes to the first guy that asks.”

Suddenly he came to the photo of P’Thara and burst into laughter. “What is that?”

“It’s -” Ting Ting began laughing so hard it made her stomach hurt. “It’s his lizard!” She rolled to her side and started sucking in air.

Tee zoomed in the photo and it clearly showed a lizard crawling across Thara’s face, tail wrapped under his nose.

“He, he, he says his name is cupcake!!”

She put her phone away then and plunged the tent into darkness while they convulsed in laughter. They spent the next few minutes talking about Duen’s weird cousin and wheezing. Ting Ting had known him since she was fourteen and she was happy to dish about all the strange stuff her friend’s cousin had gotten up to over the years. 

“Can you believe Bohn thought Duen was dating him?” she asked.

“Sorry, that was my fault,” Tee confessed. “I saw them hug at the mall and I didn’t want Bohn to get his heart broken.”

She punched him in the shoulder hard as punishment, then reached out to tickle Tee’s side. He curled into a fetal position, laughing with his back to her.

“Stop stop stop!” he begged, laughing so hard he was crying.

“Okay okay,” she relented.

When she ran out of stories, they stopped talking but still broke out into giggles as they remembered something. Ting Ting lay back and listened to their breathing as the scent from the plumeria flowers drifted through the camp on the night breeze. She heard Tee roll onto his back and clear his throat.

“Did you kiss Tang?”

 _Oh my god._ “Yes.” 

“I thought so,” Tee said quietly.

 _What did that mean?_ She decided to tell him. “We kissed like when we were fifteen. It was so bad. All our friends kept telling us it was _obvious_ we liked each other and we should date and how we were basically already husband and wife. And we finally kissed one day after school in the music closet and,” she shuddered, “it was sooo _awful_. We were both grossed out and we realized we are better off as best friends.”

Tee turned over in the dark and looked at her for a while before rolling back to stare at the ceiling of the tent.

Ting Ting breathed a few more minutes and made a decision. “I’m not talking to anyone right now, if that’s what you’re asking,” she admitted.

“I-why not?” he asked.

She shrugged but realized he probably couldn’t see it in the dark and spoke instead. “I don’t know. I guess this first year has been kind of tough being in the pre-med program. Flirting with someone would be fun, but my grades are more important right now.”

“Oh.”

“Are you? Talking to anyone, I mean?” she asked. She knew he flirted with some girls in the Communication faculty earlier in the semester, but was curious what he’d say.

“I try to flirt and talk to girls, but no one from our faculty. They all like Bohn and King anyway and don’t even talk to me.” He laughed. “I have a lot of friends that are girls now. King’s sisters always tease me because I’m always in the friend zone.”

Ting Ting had heard that Tee was popular for watching over the juniors at the club, being the first to take out the girls when they needed cheering up, and making sure no one bothers them. “It just means you’re a good guy. That’s what they say anyway.”

They lay quietly a bit more, just breathing in the dark.

“What are you thinking?” Ting Ting asked him.

Tee put his hands over his face and said, “Bad thoughts.”

Ting Ting reached out her hand and lay her fingers on Tee’s forearm. “Wanna fool around?”

“Yes.” Tee answered right away and rolled over to her. 

He rested one hand on the sleeping bag next to her shoulder and slid his other hand in her hair before bending his neck and kissing her on the mouth. Ting Ting slid her hands around him, hugging him close, and kneaded her fingers into the muscles of his back. For a while, all they did was kiss slowly. Tee’s hands never even went below Ting Ting’s shoulders.

Growing impatient, she leaned up into the kiss, sucking a little at his bottom lip. She withdrew her arms from around Tee’s back and pressed her hands to his chest, pushing a little. He popped back from their embrace and she followed him, crawling out of her sleeping bag to lay on top of him. Finally, Tee let his hands wander over her back and waist before breaking off the kiss with her name.

“Hmm?” she asked.

“We should sleep. Just sleep now,” Tee insisted.

“Unhuh,” she murmured in disagreement, kissing him some more.

Tee grabbed her hand off his stomach and scooted up a little bit, trapping her in a hug by his shoulder, keeping his mouth out of reach. He smoothed her hair with his other hand.

“We’re drunk. We should stop now,” he explained and then kissed the top of her head.

She was disappointed and continued to kiss his chest a little bit through his shirt before giving up. She lay there quietly then, listening to the sounds of the camp and the rise and fall of Tee’s breath while wrapped in his arms. She wasn’t drunk, not anymore, but figured he was right for them to stop.

She woke up to the sounds of breakfast and other students packing up. Sometime in the night, Tee had covered her up with her bag and he was inside his own sleeping bag with his back to her. Ting Ting slipped out of the tent with her backpack in hand and joined Phu and Tang on the field by the mess tent and watched as everyone mingled around and said their farewells.

_Ding._

At the sound of the alert, Ting Ting pulled her phone out of her backpack to look at the message. The notification showed a text from Tee and she tapped on the preview to see the start of the message.

> _I’d like to talk, but if you don’t want to, that’s okay too. Just let -_

Tang started to lean over her shoulder and she quickly closed the messenger app and opened her gallery instead. She scrolled through her photos before she found the one of King and Ram at the falls with the flower wreaths and hit share. She’d need to wait to open the full message later. It could stay on unread until then. Tee was a big boy. Besides, she needed to figure out what she wanted anyway. The bus ride would help.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ting Ting avoids Tee after the camping trip and the friends visit Boss' family resort during the half-term break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In 2021, half-term break is February 10-14, 2021.

Tee and his friends took their classes in a lockstep curriculum so they could have the same schedule. After their gen ed classes were done, it had been a coordinated effort on their part. Registration day was always high stress, constantly refreshing the page to get the sections they wanted together. One time, Boss gave a dozen second year students a hundred baht each to switch sections just so that he could cause a chain reaction of registration changes in their cohort that ultimately led them to all sit in the same physics laboratory together.

All that led up to the fact that whenever Tee wanted to sit alone somewhere on campus, he couldn’t. His friends all had the same break and couldn’t seem to leave him alone unless he made an escape over to the library or wandered over to the Communication Faculty. And he hadn’t wanted to go to the other end of campus since they came back from their service trip. Tee was sitting in the gear quad waiting at their usual table, just flipping through his messenger app repeatedly, refreshing it. He was miserable. 

> _Sunday, 09:32 Tee: I’d like to talk, but if you don’t want to, that’s okay too. Just let me know what you decide._
> 
> _Tuesday, 16:17 Tee: It was really nice to hang out and laugh together on the trip. I think it would be fun to talk some more._
> 
> _Thursday, 22:54 Ting Ting: I have two tests this week_

He leaned his head down and buried his fingers in his hair, hiding his face from his friends. _So embarrassing._ He never should have sent that second message. Was he pushy? Was he clingy? _Was he creepy?_ The last thing he wanted was for her to feel pressured. But the first text seemed almost uninterested and he had been afraid that she would think he didn’t like her. Was the second one overboard?

At least he wasn’t alone in his misery. Bohn had been pouty for over a week. He shuffled his feet over to the picnic table, dropped his messenger bag on the pavers, and slumped on the bench with a sigh.

“Poor Bohn,” Boss said with false sympathy. The little shit was currently cuddling Mek on the opposite side of the table, half in his lap. “Does poor wittle Bohnny boy miss his husband?”

Bohn didn’t answer. He just lay his head down on the table, resting his cheek on top of his notebook.

“Shut up Boss. They just made up and haven’t been able to spend any time together,” Tee said.

King came back from the bathroom just then and caught the end of their little scene. “What’s up with you?”

“I miss Duen.” Pouty Bohn sounded pretty whiny. “He’s had two tests since we got back from the trip, and I thought he’d have more time, but now he says he has eye pee or something.”

King crumbled up a note page and threw it at Bohn’s head. “IPE, not eye pee. It’s something the med students all have to do.”

The med students - Tee started to pay attention. “King, how do you know about that?”

“Ram told me about it,” King said with a shrug. “All the faculties from the different health sciences have to do case studies together, even starting in the first year. They call it interprofessional education.”

“How does Ram know about it?” Tee asked.

“He and Phu are the only ones in their friend group that aren’t pre-med. It’s all the others will talk about at lunch, apparently,” King explained.

Tee narrowed his eyes at King, who looked away. King knew an awful lot about Ram’s friend group, but Tee wasn’t going to point it out and lose out on that bit of information.

> _I have two tests this week_

Well. At least now he knew that not only wasn’t he alone in his misery, but he also knew that Ting Ting’s excuse was valid. Not that she didn’t have every right to ghost him if she felt uncomfortable, but...well. He didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable.

Another week went by and when Duen started visiting Bohn at the Engineering faculty again and Ting still hadn’t texted back, Tee got the hint.

Boss invited them all to his parents’ resort for the half-term break. He didn’t know how he had arranged it since this year the break was the same time as Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year, notoriously busy holidays. When they arrived, the resort was packed with both families and couples looking to make the best of the extended break.

Mek and Boss arrived the night before and Bohn had driven Duen, Tee, and King to meet them. They were still pulling their backpacks from Bohn’s trunk when a rusty, white Subaru pulled up behind them in the circle lot, the driver leaning on the horn. Tang was the annoying driver and Phu, Ram, and Ting Ting quickly poured out of the car. Tee hadn’t known the younger students were coming along, but it did seem that Bohn usually made sure that Duen’s friends were included lately.

Ting Ting stood casually with her arms over Phu’s and Ram’s shoulders, laughing and smiling at the group.

“Bohn! You didn’t tell me they were coming too!” The delight was obvious in Duen’s eyes.

“I couldn’t let my _faen_ go on a trip without his friends. Your friends are important too.”

_Gag._ Bohn was so cheesy since they made up while on the service trip. The honey was literally dripping from his eyes. 

“Oooh! You make me so jealous,” Ting Ting said. She swung her backpack into Duen’s stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him. “All these handsome men and I’m still single!”

Boss ran over and grabbed Ting Ting’s hand. “Don’t worry, beautiful! I still like women!” He pretended to fawn over her.

“As if your husband would allow it!” Ting Ting said.

Mek just grinned. “You’re welcome to him. All he does is steal my snacks.”

Boss showed them around the resort and introduced them all to his parents before taking them all to a back corridor filled with small single rooms. They had pulled straws earlier to see who would be unfortunate enough to have the room next to Mek and Boss, but watching how handsy Bohn and Duen had been on the drive down, Tee was regretting being stuck in the suite next to theirs. It was going to be a long break.

Tee’s room was small and simple. A double bed, a single chest, a small side table and chair, and a private bathroom. No window though. That was a bummer, even though he didn’t think he’d be spending too much time in the room. He left his backpack on the bed and hung his toiletry bag from the shower rod, hustling back out in the hall. He waited a bit outside Ting Ting’s door until the door opened. He quickly swung around so it didn’t look like he was waiting, but it was only Tang coming out of her room.

_It was Tang coming out of her room._

It was none of his business anyway who came out of her room. It’s not like she was cheating. They weren’t even _talking_ . This was pointless. He was pointless. What was he even _doing?!_ Tee shoved his hands into his pockets and stalked off towards the outdoor restaurant where they all agreed to meet later.

When he walked out to the patio where everyone was sitting, he stopped in the doorway in confusion when he saw Ting Ting already seated at the table with the others. Maybe he’d mistaken Tang’s door for hers? It didn’t matter though. She had never texted him back.

After sunset, they wandered down to the beach where Boss and Mek had started a bonfire. There were a few ice buckets filled with beers and another table with platters of more food. It was fun. For a while. But after a time, Tee was starting to feel like the third wheel to about four couples.

Finally, he went back to his room, not that anyone noticed, and ordered room service. A quick shower helped clean the bonfire smoke out of his hair and he was already in his pajamas, just toweling off his hair when he heard the knock on his door. Ting Ting stared at him when he pulled open the door. She didn’t say anything and Tee leaned out in the hall to look both ways. No one else was in the hall. Ting Ting looked up and pushed one hand against his chest to move him back into his room. She rushed in and shut the door, leaning back against it, and stared up at him. 

Tee stared at her in shock while she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt for a minute. 

“Ting Ting, what are you doing?” He knew what he hoped she was doing.

“Being stupid. Or being brave, I don’t know.”

He stared at her some more and let a few breaths pass. 

She stopped fidgeting and squared her shoulders. “Tee, I-”

He leaned down a little bit until their faces were even. “What are you thinking about?”

Ting Ting grinned at him. “Bad thoughts.” 

When he heard her echo his same words from their night in the tent, Tee stepped forward and slid his hands to either side of her face, burying his fingers in her hair. He paused and looked at her again and waited until Ting Ting would give him a sign. She gave a small nod of her head and that was all the permission he needed before he leaned forward into a kiss.

This wasn’t like their first kiss, all slow and tentative as they learned each other. This was all hunger and want and need and had all the pent up energy that Tee had stored in his weeks missing her touch. Tee was so focused on her taste and the feel of Ting Ting in his arms that he hadn’t even noticed that she had backed him up to the bed until he felt the mattress against the back of his knees. Startled, he sat backward on the bed and she half tumbled with him, ending up in his lap. 

He dragged his mouth away from hers. “Ting, wait.”

It was a mistake on his part. As soon as he had pulled away, she buried her mouth in the crook of his neck where it met his shoulder. His reaction was immediate, and there was no hiding how hard he was in his sleep pants. Especially now that she was half draped across his lap in his embrace. 

“Ting, wait,” he said with more insistence. He put his hands on her forearms and held her a little away from his body.

“What if I don’t want to?” Ting Ting wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“I want to. If one of us wants to wait, let’s just wait.”

“Why would you want to wait?” She wriggled on his lap and pouted.

_Oh god, her bottom lip looked so delicious._

“I’m waiting for you to talk to me. I told you I wanted to talk,” he pressed her arms down to her sides. “And stop wiggling like that, you’ll make me lose my mind.”

“So what now?” she asked.

He lifted her off his lap and set her to the side on the bed. He scooted further away and made a devastating decision he wasn’t sure was right. “You need to go back to your room. I...It’s not right for you to be in my room late at night. Someone could see you leave.”

“And what if they do?” she asked.

It sounded like a dare, but he didn’t want the others to start any rumors behind her back. Now with how close this friend group was. He did not expect what he said next, though. “You can’t just seduce me and then not return my texts.”

Ting Ting burst into laughter at that.

“I was bad, wasn’t I?” Ting Ting reached across the mattress and laid her hand on top of his.

He grabbed it back like a lifeline and twined his fingers in hers.

“You need to go back to your room and I’m going to call you and we’re going to talk tonight,” Tee said with finality.

Determined as he was, they kissed with every step towards the door. As soon as he put his hand on the knob, she turned in his hug and pushed him against the door, pressing her whole length against him. Tee groaned involuntarily and wrapped his arms around Ting Ting. He let one hand wander down past her waist and cup her ass through her jeans. God, she looked good in jeans. Ting Ting scratched her nails up the side of his ribs and he realized he needed to stop them now before they got any further. He whirled them both around in a heartbeat and yanked the door open, quickly glancing into the corridor to look for others. Seeing it was clear, he basically shoved her out in the hall with a quick peck on the lips.

“I’m calling your phone in ten minutes and we will talk about this,” Tee insisted.

"We're here for four more nights, Tee," she laughed while walking down the hall.

He pressed the door shut and locked it, not confident that Ting Ting wouldn’t try to make her way back inside. Tee leaned his head against the wood for a few breaths and tried to clear the muzzy desire from his brain. It wasn’t working, so he went back to take another shower. There was another way to clear his mind.

**Author's Note:**

> Who else is going to write this rarepair for me if not me?


End file.
